This invention relates generally to a new and improved mirror, and in particular it relates to a new and improved low-cost mirror substantially free of mirror distortion and particularly suitable for being embodied to a toy such as a toy compact.
As known to those skilled in the mirror art, the primary requirement for any mirror is that it produce reflected images free of distortion. This requirement is inviolate for very expensive beauty and decorative mirrors but is subject to some compromise in mirrors of relative low-cost application, such as mirrors for toys, where there can be an economically acceptable compromise between the cost of the mirror and the amount of distortion present. However, as is also known to those skilled in the art, the greater the amount of distortion present the less attractive the mirror and the less attractive the mirror the less the saleability of the mirror and the item, such as a toy, including the mirror.
As still further known to those skilled in the art, the amount of distortion present in a reflected image produced by a mirror is a direct function of the smoothness or flatness of the mirror's reflecting surface; the smoother and flatter the reflecting surface, the more distortion-free are the reflected images. Typical of a low-cost mirror, particularly one that may be found in a toy application, is a layer of molded plastic providing a support surface for the low-cost mirror and a layer of metallized plastic film or even a layer of metal foil, supported by the support surface and providing the reflecting surface. Due to the plastic being molded, such as being produced by injection molding, the support surface of the plastic layer is non-uniform or has what is referred to as surface irregularity. Upon the metallized plastic film or particularly the metal foil being placed on the supporting surface, the surface irregularity is transferred to the metallized plastic film or metal foil causing the reflecting surface to be non-uniform or irregular whereby the reflected images produced by the mirror's reflecting surface are distorted. It is, of course, technically possible to form a layer of plastic providing a mirror support surface virtually free of surface irregularities but the cost of such manufacture generally tends to make the mirror too expensive for typical low-cost applications.
Efforts have been made in the past to overcome this image distortion problem by forming the mirror's reflecting surface on a relatively rigid and thereby relatively flat material such as a relatively thick layer of plexiglass or acrylic, such plexiglass or acrylic typically being in the order of 0.125 inch thick. This structure has been found to be undesirably expensive and, due to its thickness, especially when supported by a substrate such as a supporting surface provided by a layer of plastic, to be so thick as not to be aesthetically pleasing to the intended customer.
Hence, there exists a need in the art for a low-cost mirror substantially free of image distortion which can be manufactured for an economically acceptable cost and which will be sufficiently free of image distortion as to be aesthetically attractive to the intended purchaser and therefore highly saleable.